Good morning from Metal Bulletin's office in Shanghai as we bring you the latest news and pricing stories on Thursday March 15.Base metals traded on the Shanghai Futures Exchange were broadly weaker during Asian morning trading on Thursday, with heavy losses seen in nickel and zinc prices, while lead was the only metal to push higher. Disappointing US data overnight and dovish speech from European...Read More

Iron ore output in Peru increased by 32.99% year-on-year in January, according to figures released by the country's mining ministry, MEM, late on Wednesday March 14.Production for the month came to 985,955 tonnes, against 741,373 tonnes a year before.This growth was due to increased output at Shougang Hierro Per??, a subsidiary of China-based Shougang Group, as well...Read More

Iron ore prices edged up on Thursday March 15 amid improved sentiment following the release of data showing a drop in steel inventories in the Chinese market. Metal Bulletin's 62% Fe Iron Ore Index Today: $72.11 per tonne cfr Qingdao Daily change: up by $0.47 per tonne Month-to-date average: $73.95 per tonne Metal Bulletin's 58% Fe Premium Index Today: $57.71...Read More

The latest bids, offers and deals in the global markets for iron ore, pig iron, direct-reduced iron and other steelmaking raw materials. Latest transaction: iron oreIron oreRio Tinto,...Read More

A flurry of transactions took place in the seaborne coking coal spot market on Thursday March 15, which gave some support to prices for premium products. A cargo of premium mid-vol hard coking coal with an early-April laycan was heard to have been sold against index with a discount of under 1% to an end-user while another shipment of the same brand was traded at $215 per tonne fob Australia. A pre...Read More

The seaborne iron ore market maintained its stability on Thursday March 15 amid a slight drop in steel inventories in China, with premiums for index-linked cargoes of 62% Fe Australian fines failing to rise as much as expected.Key drivers The slight drop in steel inventories gave the market some optimism about demand from downstream industries beginning its recovery. According to a local informati...Read More

China's ferrous futures ended the morning trading session little changed from their opening prices on Thursday March 15 amid an announcement that steelmakers in some parts of the country are to stop all blast furnace operations until the end of this month.Futures closing prices - morning session Shanghai Futures Exchange May rebar: 3,748 yuan ($593.20) per tonne, up 8 yuan per tonne May hot-rolled...Read More

Base metals prices on the London Metal Exchange were mostly lower during morning trading on Thursday March 15, while the market awaited key US data released later today."Just when it looked like the markets were going to make a sustained move yesterday we reverted back to the same discontinuous and choppy price action... All eyes are on the slew of US data to come later," Matt France, Marex Spectr...Read More

Chinese cobalt producer GEM has signed a long-term strategic procurement contract with Glencore, securing more than 50,000 tonnes of cobalt intermediates for the following three years - part of a growing trend of producers looking to lock in supply amid growing global tightness.Shenzhen-listed GEM will purchase 13,800 tonnes of crude hydroxide from Glencore in 2018 and a further 18,000 tonnes and...Read More

The large price gap between European and Asian prices for stainless steel is making it difficult to raise EU base prices, according to Spanish stainless producer Acerinox."Higher European domestic prices would only attract more imports from Asia right now," Acerinox chief executive officer Bernardo Vel??zquez said late last month.Asian stainless steel prices have remained largely stable so far dur...Read More

Japan's Nippon Steel and Sumitomo Metal Corporation will expand its global presence in special steels markets by acquiring Swedish special steels maker Ovako and making Japanese steel maker Sanyo Special Steel its subsidiary.The major Japanese steel producer intends to acquire Ovako from private equity fund Triton in the first half of the 2018 fiscal year subject to approval from the competition a...Read More

Global crude stainless steel production totaled 48.08 million tonnes in 2017, according to figures released by the International Stainless Steel Forum (ISSF) on Thursday March 15.This was up 5.79% from the revised figure of 45.45 million tonnes produced in 2016.Production in China was 25.77 million tonnes in 2017, up 4.74% from 24.61 million tonnes in 2016.Output in Asia -...Read More

Metal Bulletin has corrected its March 2 and March 9 price assessments for EU export grade-304 stainless steel cold rolled (CR) sheet (2mm).Metal Bulletin has corrected its price assessment for EU export grade-304 stainless steel cold rolled (CR) sheet (2mm), which was published incorrectly on Friday March 2 and Friday March 9, due to a calculation error.The export grade-304 CR sheet price was pub...Read More

The Northern Miner podcast takes a turn this week as it relocates to our Toronto head office with a new cast of regular hosts including editor-in-chief John Cumming, senior staff writer Trish Saywell, staff writer Richard Quarisa and online editor Adrian Pocobelli.We start with a salute to our Mining Person of the Year for 2017: Sean Boyd of Agnico Eagle Mines. We then move into a quick review of...Read More

Big miners operating in the Democratic Republic of Congo took President Joseph Kabila's word seriously.Less than a week ago, Kabila signed into law a new mining code that raises royalties and taxes on operators. As he did so, the President assured them that their questions around the legal instrument would be resolved through transitional arrangements, mining regulations and agreements, and guaran...Read More

Following the settlement of a longstanding Superfund lawsuit against the owner of the Bunker Hill Mine, the project's Canadian operator might restart works at the site. Toronto-based Bunker Hill Mining Co. told The Spokesman-Review that it would consider reopening the mine on a limited basis by the end of the year, while large-scale production could be possible in about two years.The Canadian mine...Read More

Earlier this week the Chilean press learned about an application for a mining concession presented before Quilpu?(C)'s First Municipal Court by Augusto Pinochet Hiriart, the son of former dictator Augusto Pinochet.According to local media, back in February, Pinochet requested a "license to exploit a copper, gold, silver and other minerals" in an area near the city of Quilpu?(C), which is located i...Read More

https://www.bloomberg.com/UN sanctions have hurt minerals businesses where China meets North Korea. The talks could change that.Sun Hongtao, the youthful-looking president of Sino-Mining International Ltd., is in a funk, sitting in a cold, empty office in the Chinese town of Changbai in Jilin province. Two miles from where he sits, across the border in North Korea, is the huge Hyesan Youth Copper...Read More

Are Trump's latest tariff's a potential successful long-term strategy or will he crash and burn? Prof. Steve Keen discusses it with Bart Chilton. Steve Keen is an Australian-born, British-based economist and author. He considers himself a post-Keynesian, criticising neoclassical economics as inconsistent, unscientific and empirically unsupported. Keen was formerly an associate professor of economi...Read More

Lynette Zang has held the position of Chief Market Analyst at ITM Trading since 2002. Ms. Zang has been in the markets on some level since 1964. Her mission is to convert financial noise into understandable language. She has been a banker, a stock broker and studied world currencies since 1987. She believes strongly that we need to be as independent as possible and at the same time, we need to com...Read More